It's hard to say which is the more surprising fact about the Oakland Raiders' visit to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers on Sunday - that both are tied for their respective division leads or that it's the Raiders who come in with momentum on their side.
Pittsburgh (6-3) is tied with Baltimore for the AFC North lead after a 39-26 loss to the Patriots on Sunday night, its worst home loss since 2006.
The Steelers hope it isn't the start of another slide like the one they experienced after a 6-2 start last season, when they lost five straight and wound up missing the playoffs at 9-7.
The Raiders played a role in that skid, as Bruce Gradkowski led Oakland to a wild win last December in Pittsburgh, throwing a game-winning touchdown pass to Louis Murphy for a 27-24 victory in a game that featured five fourth-quarter lead changes. Murphy had a career-best 128 receiving yards and two touchdowns in that game.
The Raiders (5-4) won't have Gradkowski manning the offense Sunday, though. Gradkowski is all the way back from the shoulder injury that sidelined him for four games, but he has lost his starting job to Jason Campbell.
Campbell has excelled the past three games - all wins - passing for 743 yards with five touchdowns and one interception for a 104.3 passer rating during that stretch.
Now Campbell gets to line up against the Steelers defense that gave up 350 passing yards last week, albeit to Tom Brady.
Pittsburgh is 3-2 since starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger returned from his four-game suspension for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy after going 3-1 without him.
The blame can hardly be hung on Roethlisberger, though. Since his return, no one in the NFL has passed for more yards than Roethlisberger, who has thrown for 1,304 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions. He threw for 387 yards against the Patriots, his second 300-yard game of the season.
Roethlisberger has found a new favorite target in speedy wideout Mike Wallace, who had career highs with eight catches for 136 yards and two touchdowns last week. Wallace has at least 100 receiving yards and one touchdown in each of the past two games.
Oakland is coming off a bye week, which followed a 23-20 overtime win at home against Kansas City. The Chiefs lost at Denver while the Raiders were idle last week, allowing Oakland to pull into a tie for the AFC West lead.
Oakland hasn't been in first place in the division this late in the season since 2002, and its return to the top is in large part because of the emergence of running back Darren McFadden, who leads the NFL with 108.1 rushing yards per game. McFadden, who missed two games because of injury, has rushed for a career-high 757 yards.
The Raiders have also gotten a spark from rookie Jacoby Ford, who had career highs with six catches for 148 yards against the Chiefs and also returned a kickoff 94 yards for a score.
Pittsburgh cut longtime kicker Jeff Reed on Tuesday and replaced him with Shaun Suisham. Reed missed a 26-yard field goal Sunday, his seventh miss of the season.